Six In The Morning: Don’t Wake Me Before Noon

1 ONTARIO LIBERALS WIN A MINORITY GOVERNMENT Story here. Four thoughts: 1.) Going into this election, the Conservatives had the edge because Ontarians were fed up with Premier Dalton McGuinty — but between Toronto’s unpleasant, buffoonish conservative mayor and, probably, the scary Conservative majority federal government, Ontario voters seem to have decided it’s best to back away from the Tories. 2.) McGuinty says his Liberals won a “major minority”. Screw that self-serving analysis. It’s true the Liberals are one seat away from a majority but that’s because Canada’s electoral systems are all broken. In real numbers, the Liberals only did slightly better than the Conservatives: the Liberals got 37.62% of the total votes while the Conservatives were on their heels with 35.43%. (The NDP got 22.73% and the Greens got 2.93%). Those numbers don’t suggest a strong minority at all. 3.) And on that topic, what’s everyone’s problems with minority and coalition governments anway? I’m gonna say brainwashing is to blame. I’d rather have politicians have to work together in the best interests of voters than the bogus system we have now. 4.) Finally, it sure sucks that voter turnout was so low.

2 CAUTION: CITY MAY EXPLODE There was an explosion and fire at Regina’s oil refinery yesterday and today there’s a leaky gas main. Maybe it’s time to issue citizens helmets?

3 PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICER ACCUSES HARPER GOVERNMENT OF “TOTAL OBFUSCATION” The federal Conservative estimates on the costs of their turgid crime bill don’t include any details, says Kevin Page. Best quote: “There is actually no information to support the estimates in the press release today. Where else can you imagine yourself going to a bank and saying, ‘I want $2.7 billion and here’s one piece of paper. Can I have my money now?'”

4 ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO CURL UP IN DISPAIR OVER The Keystone XL pipeline hearings are in their final day, and come on, we know there’s no way it won’t be approved. Also, there’s a theory that climate change will shrink global fish populations. Yikes.

5 FIRST THE DRUGS, THEN THE SEX Last week’s Supreme Court ruling on Insite might lead to prostitution laws being knocked down. Read all about it.

6 THE TEST FAILS? A U.S. government agency says that healthy men shouldn’t get PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screenings, which tend to cause more harm than good.

BONUS VIDEO: OCCUPY WALL STREET What’s the deal? Watch and learn. I like the non-violence of it.

2 thoughts on “Six In The Morning: Don’t Wake Me Before Noon”

The other day I saw a site that predicted a Liberal majority in Ontario, with the PCs holding a greater share of the popular vote. That didn’t happen, but what did happen is almost as bad. I wonder what the turnout would look like if they had the MMP system Ontarians voted against in 2007? Or if they had preferential voting like the AV system for cats? A minority government might just be the right opportunity for one of these options to bubble up again. You know what would be good about perpetual minority governments and coalitions? What happens in the house would no longer be so much about playing games as it would be about, gasp, governing fairly.